Why a low ATAR is not the end of the world for students or universities

University admission - and the ATARs that influence them - are surrounded by myth and misinformation. Here are the facts.

By Marcia Devlin

August 3, 2015 — 12.14pm

The Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank or ATAR is a numerical, relative ranking derived from senior high-school performance and a complex series of scaling and other adjustments. We are surrounded by myth and misinformation about this number.

Many assume, incorrectly, that the higher the ATAR on a university course, the "better" the university course. But the ATAR has no correlation with objective measures of course quality. The simple truth is that the higher the ATAR for a course, the more popular the course is among school leavers.

Storm the gates: Courses requiring high ATARs are not necessarily an indication of quality, merely of popularity.

Many assume that there are ATAR scores published for all courses in Victoria. There are not. The majority of courses in Victoria don't publish ATARs. Of the minority that do publish ATARs, two-thirds of them make offers at lower ATARs than the published ones.

All universities award ATAR bonus points. These extra points and how they are determined are not regulated in any way, nor are they usually transparent. Universities can award bonus points as they wish and for whatever they wish. This furtive awarding of points is disguised as recognising "leadership", "community-mindedness" and other qualities of applicants.

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Two-thirds of university places offered will be to people without an ATAR at all. Direct entry to university is growing exponentially at some universities, with the ATAR bypassed altogether. Direct entry, mature-age and international students, and students who come through VET pathways make up the majority of the Australian university cohort.

The young, good-looking, Anglo-Celtic, recent school leaver student lying about on green grass with sandstone buildings in the background is a marketing construction.

Universities don't really want the public to know all of this. After all, it works for many of them to have folk believe that the higher the ATAR, the better the course and possibly, the better the university. But what is it better at?

The public are currently being misled by what is essentially a clever marketing system using ATARs as proxies of quality. It needs to stop and the new head of the federal Higher Education Standards Panel has recently announced that the Panel will begin to increase transparency around this issue.

In the meantime, universities grant entry to students without ATARs and with a wide range of ATARs. They have to do so and will continue to do so for a number of reasons.

One important reason is that successive governments of both sides have encouraged and supported increased access to university education for a larger number and broader range of people. The alternative is to have fewer people educated at the highest levels and subsequent reduced capacity to lead and innovate in a rapidly changing world.

More people at university with no ATAR or lower ATARs than in the past does not mean the end of civilisation nor the collapse of standards, despite the scare-mongering that goes on that might lead one to believe these are possibilities.

It does mean that universities need to increasingly focus on ensuring the highest quality of teaching and learning possible for all students. It does mean that universities must put in place proactive support structures, processes and programs to ensure all the students to whom they give access can meet their potential and have the highest chance of success possible.

This is increasingly within universities' strategic and operational priorities, with some of us having been focused on this for many years.

The main priority should be to focus on exit standards and outcomes - where students end up - not where they started.

Not all students who enter university will complete a degree, and the likelihood of dropping out is correlated with socioeconomic status, as are school completion and ATAR scores.

But if we restrict access to university only to those guaranteed to succeed based on previous education scores, we block a life-changing opportunity for scores of thousands of people every year.

Case studies at my own universities show that despite starting with very low ATARs, those who go on to successfully complete courses will graduate as qualified professionals and subsequently contribute to the economy, their communities and society in enhanced ways.

Why would universities seek to deny the opportunities that enable these outcomes and limit the potential of a highly educated society by only taking in high ATAR students?

Professor Marcia Devlin is deputy vice-chancellor (Learning and Quality) at Federation University Australia